World’s top miner plans to hire 21,000 women, rectify imbalance

BHP Billiton Ltd wants women to account for half of its workforce by 2025 as the world’s top miner seeks to change the gender balance in an industry dominated by men.

The company isn’t “as inclusive or diverse as we could be,” CEO Andrew Mackenzie said in a statement on Thursday. BHP has a workforce of about 65,000, including contractors, of which 18% are female. Based on these numbers, its target would mean an additional 21,000 women employed by the middle of the next decade, including both its own staff and contractors.

The $800 billion mining industry has long been a male-dominated business, with women even banned from working underground in some countries until recently. Men hold a majority of executive positions in resources companies, lagging behind other sectors. While the proportion is growing, female directors accounted for only 10.9% of miners’ boards on average in 2014, compared with more than 15 percent in consumer goods and services, according to a study by Women in Mining UK and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Read More…